Photograph by: Charles Rex Arbogast
, AP

Well, the Los Angeles Kings’ goaltender is a man of few words, and those he does utter are rarely memorable, but with his craft, he speaks quite eloquently.

And what Jonathan Quick’s craft said Wednesday night, in Game 2 of the Western Conference final was: “Not so fast, Chicago.”

The Kings may have looked dead on their feet halfway through the game, down 1-0 in the series and 2-0 on the night, with the Blackhawks exploiting their physical and mental errors to create Grade A scoring chances.

But once their margin for error was down to nothing, Quick closed the door at his end and Crawford left his ajar. The Kings kicked it down, scoring six unanswered goals for a 6-2 victory that left 22,019 fans in the Madhouse on Madison wondering what hit them … or rather, what hit the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Jeff Carter scored three third-period goals, the last into an empty net, to lead a comeback that was jaw-dropping on a couple of counts.

For one, the Hawks were 8-0 in the playoffs when scoring the first goal, and the Kings were 1-6 when giving up the first one. For another, this was the United Center. The Hawks just don’t lose here.

"I think this is a huge game for … I guess, our psyche. Kind of like slaying the mythical dragon,” said Kings captain Dustin Brown. “We've been dominated by this team over the last couple of years. To come in here and get a win in their building with the type of home record they have, I think gives us a boost in confidence."

“We're not completely happy with ourselves, but that was our goal coming in, to at least steal one,” said L.A.’s Drew Doughty. “It's tough to win in this building. I don't think anyone in here had ever won a playoff game in this building.”

For the first half of the night, Crawford was barely busy enough to keep his heart beating. Frankly, the guy up in the private box with Wayne Gretzky, Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull and Denis Savard probably could have kept the Blackhawks in front, and Tony Esposito is 71 years old.

Wherever they found the legs to compete on par with the Blackhawks in Game 1, the Kings appeared to have lost them again by the time the puck dropped Wednesday.

Time and again, the Hawks’ speed caused nightmares for the L.A. defence, to the tune of four minor penalties, all to blueliners.

The Kings’ defence took four minor penalties in the first period alone, and the fourth, to Willie Mitchell for cross-checking Peter Regin into the L.A. net, helping prevent what looked to be a certain goal, ended up with the Hawks scoring on the power play --- Duncan Keith sending the speediest of the Chicago blueliners, Nick Leddy, away for a pretty breakaway goal.

It didn’t get appreciably better in the second for the visitors, who again let the Hawks get behind them --- this time, Ben Smith hopping off the bench on a line change and ripping a shot past Quick’s right pad.

At that point, another goal would have been fatal, and only an amazing side-to-side swoop by Quick, getting his arm on Brent Seabrook’s open look at the cage on a 2-on-1, kept the game alive.

"That's what we need Quickie to do -- he does it all the time, makes those big saves when we need him, and that's just a prime example,” said Doughty. “That's a huge save for us, and from that point, we got pucks to the net, put one in, and came in here down only 2-1, which is what we wanted.”

“I don't think there's necessarily one turning point,” said Sutter. “I think killing a five-on-three in the first, not going away when the score is 2-0, scoring a goal late in the second, scoring a goal early in the third …”

That first glimmer of life came with a little over a minute left in the period when Seabrook lost a puck battle with Dwight King and Mike Richards’ pass into the crease glanced off Justin Willliams’s skate and found a hole between Crawford’s pads.

Then it all went sideways for the home team in the third.

The Hawks took two early penalties --- Michal Handzus for holding, and a bench minor for too many men --- and the Kings scored on both power plays, Carter tipping home a long wrist-shot from Doughty and Jake Muzzin ripping another over Crawford, who didn’t play the angle very well.

Crawford made a save but lost the puck when it went high and behind the net, and while he was looking for it, Tanner Pearson fed Tyler Toffoli for the 4-2 goal. Carter added the last two, but the Hawks, and their fans, were deflated by then.

“You’re bound to give up something,” said Chicago captain Jonathan Toews. “If they score a goal to pull within one it doesn’t mean they have to score six unanswered.”

“It’s too many. It’s too many,” said Crawford, who gave up five goals on 31 shots. “Can’t be giving up that, or however many goals it was in the third.”

“I really liked how we played for 38 minutes. Did everything we were looking to do,” said Hawks coach Joel Quenneville. “They got momentum late in the period on an innocent play, gained some life, we took a couple penalties, they’re both in our net and that was it.

“But certainly, the way it turned on a dime like that, I don’t know if we’ve seen a game like that all year where we’re doing everything right and then all of a sudden it was a disaster.”

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